New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Effutu in the Central Region Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has shielded the newly elected National Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddie Blay over his decision to facilitate the purchase of 275 mini buses for each constituency of the party.
The Effutu MP reasoned that Mr. Blay’s pledge – which came to execution ahead of the NPP’s Delegates Conference, was not meant to sway voters.
According to Mr. Afenyo Markin’s view, the pledge to provide buses was simply a move to help the party.
Mr. Blay emerged the winner in the National Chairmanship race of the NPP amid the allegations of vote buying from his closest challenger, Stephen Ntim, and political observers.
Mr. Markin posited that “I am going into an election and the expectation of the party executives in the constituency is that we need to engage in party activities. We need to go to villages and canvas votes or go and engage in party activities so we need logistics.”
“And I promise that for these logistics that you need, I will put in place support systems to provide you with those logistics for party work. How does that become vote-buying within the context of the kind of argument that you are raising?”
However Freddie Blay’s spokesperson, Richard Nyamah, has subsequently explained that Freddie Blay contracted a loan facility from the Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) to procure the 275 buses and that the constituencies will pay for the bus over a two-year period.
By: Elizabeth Duodo
